Today’s Senate Hearing

In spite of my posting title here, I won’t go into detail on the hearing. I haven’t watched the whole thing yet, and won’t post a detailed analysis until I do so.

Before I get to my main point, which will concern H-1B wages, I’ll say that the hearing apparently turned out exactly as I expected: Praise the Intels and blame the Infosyses. This is the tactic the mainstream industry lobbyists have been using since back in the 1990s, designed to deflect attention away from their own abuse of foreign tech worker programs, and various senators employed this tried-and-true approach. The H-1B critics — researchers Hira, Miano and Salzman, and H-1B victim Jay Palmer — did a great job during the portion I’ve watched so far, with Palmer being especially good for a “non-pro.” Nevertheless, people hear what they expect/want to hear, and I predict that most of the senators came away thinking (incorrectly) that the four critics believe in the “Intels are good, Infosyses are bad” dichotomy.

My main point in this posting, though, is to discuss the Intels-vs.-Infosyses issue in terms of wages and other kinds of abuse.

First, there is no doubt that the Intels pay their H-1Bs higher wages than the Infosyses pay theirs. However, that doesn’t mean that the Intels don’t underpay their foreign workers. The two types of companies hire quite different H-1Bs, with the Intels typically hiring workers who have a Master’s degree from a U.S. school and the Infosyses hiring people with three-year Bachelor’s degrees from India. But both are underpaying for their respective levels of workers. See my Migration Letterspaper for details. (By the way, I did a quick analysis of the 2014 green card data this evening, and it was pretty much the same as the 2011 data I used in that paper.)

The other point is that for many of the Intels, the immobility of the foreign workers is much more important than saving in wages. If you are an employer, having an engineer leave you in the lurch during an urgent project is disastrous. Immigration attorneys openly urge employers to give hiring preference to foreign students over Americans for this reason. So the entire notion that the Intels are “better” because they hire foreign students turns the truth on its head.

By the way, the committee invited me to submit a letter discussing my views. You can download it here.

H-1B Visa/Outsourcing & CWA Commitment

Dr. Norm Matloff. Latest Blog Posts: Dr. Matloff has written articles (in many cases by invitation of the magazine or newspaper) for the New York Times, the Washington Post, Forbes Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, CNN, the Public Interest, the New Democrat (a publication of the Democratic Leadership Council), and so on.

The tech industry lobbyists portray H-1B as a remedy for labor shortages and as a means of hiring "the best and the brightest" from around the world. Though I strongly support that latter goal, the lobbyists' "best and brightest" claims are not valid.

CWA Local 4250/CTU#16 President Emeritus Steve Tisza initiated this website/page in February 2002 as a result of AT$T' s closing of AT$T provsioning centers in Chicago and Oakbrook, Illinois and subsequent surplus declaration of approximately one-hundred and fifty(150) Bargaining Unit jobs.

January 24, 2002- CWA Local 4250 President Emeritus Steve Tisza' letter to Daniel P. Burnham, Chairman of the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Council (NSTAC) requesting an immediate investigation of AT$T's training of foreign nationals from India.

April 18, 2002- CWA President Bahr wrote US Senator Fritz Hollings advising him of CWAs concerns regarding AT$Ts abuse of the H-1B Visa System and of AT$Ts plans to move its engineering and maintenance of the AT$T Global Network to India.

CWA Locals 4250 and 4998 produced this (30)thirty-second public service announcement regarding AT$T’s training of foreign nationals and its potential threat to Homeland Security. Commercial time was purchased and the video was scheduled to air on the Chicago affiliate of the NBC Good Morning America Show on April 24, 2002 and run until May 11, 2002.

On March 1, 2004, WKMG/CBS Channel 6 in Orlando, Florida did a 5 minute Special Report on their 11PM News of the February 23, 2004 CWA Protest at the Disney Yacht & Beach Club Resort where the 2004 World Outsourcing Summit was being held. Avaya, a CWA employer was a major sponsor of the summit. Over 100 major corporations, including AT$T and IBM were attendees.

For the first time in the history of the US Senate a country-focused caucus has been constituted and announcing its formation was the driving force behind the move Senator John Cornyn, a Republican Senator from Texas who had visited India. Click on to check if your U.S. Senator is a member of the caucus. If Yes, WRITE and object to the H-1B Visa Program and OFFSHORE OUTSOURCING OF AMERICAN JOBS!

The largest caucus of its kind in the U. S. Congress was formed in 1993. One of their objectives is to push India's economic agenda on the hill. Click on to check if your Congressperson is a member of the caucus. If Yes, WRITE and object to the H-1B Visa Program and OFFSHORE OUTSOURCING OF AMERICAN JOBS!